Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: The pride of Australia

30 minutes

Find Out: Perspectives on success

15 minutes

Take Action: Employing a supportive voice

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

analyse digital media and identify language features the author has used for a specific audience and purpose, and examine how digital language choices can be expressions of personal and social identities.

Students can:

read, identify and analyse digital media to interpret purpose, audience and context
explain how digital technology has created new pathways for people to create, read and respond to media and the impact this has had
justify their analysis with evidence from a text
create their own text to demonstrate their understanding of being an ally online.

Tune In: The pride of Australia

Preparation

Watch ‘Trailblazers’ with your students. This documentary will provide background information and set the scene for students for this lesson.

Trailblazers (https://clickv.ie/w/INpy)

Step 1

Distribute the Student Worksheet and organise students into pairs or small groups. Consider how you allocate these small groups to allow all students the scaffolding to access the information in this lesson.

Explain to the class that in early 2022, Samantha Kerr, the captain of Australia’s Women’s National Football Team, became Australia’s leading goal scorer.

Step 2

Ask students to consider the first question: “What sort of words are used to describe this event? Choose one of the words used, and fill out the word chart to develop your understanding of this word”. Students can work on this task with their partner or group, but each should choose a different word to explore. You may like to guide students to explore different words depending on their strengths or capacity.

Students may identify words and phrases such as: ‘incredible milestone’, ‘record breaker’, ‘supersedes’, ‘top goalscorer’, ‘leading goal scorer’ or ‘congratulations’.

Below is an example of a completed word chart:

WORD:	Congratulations
Meaning:	Words expressing one's praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion.
Part of Speech:	noun
Synonym:	Good wishes
Antonym:	blame
Use it in a sentence:	The CEO offered her congratulations for having made such a significant sale.

Find Out: Perspectives on success

Step 1

Ask students to discuss the 3 prompting questions in Question 2 on their worksheets, jotting down their thinking briefly, and be ready to share in a class discussion after around 10 minutes. Some suggested responses are included below, but students may come to unique interpretations that are equally valid. If they come up with an unexpected answer, ask them to extrapolate and justify their thinking!

Step 2

Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging the groups to share their thinking about the posts. Students should be listening to their peers with a pen in their hand, ready to note down any interesting viewpoints they hadn’t discussed.

What colours can you see in the visuals? What do these colours symbolise? (The dominant colours are yellow (gold) and green, which are the colours that Australian national athletes compete in – these colours symbolise the peak of sporting achievement in Australia).
How would you describe the actions of Kerr in the photographs? Why might these photographs have been chosen to represent this event? (In one visual, Kerr is grinning, looking at the crowd with her thumb raised high in the air and in the other, she smiles to the camera, holding either side of the Australian National crest that is proudly displayed on the chest of her soccer jersey. In both cases, Kerr appears happy and proud to be representing her nation and to be celebrated as one of our best athletes).
On the whole, how is this event depicted by these two social media posts? (Kerr’s achievement is depicted as a point of pride for Australia and for Kerr herself. She is shown to be a confident and friendly player who connects with the crowd and pays homage to her home nation. Both posts suggest we should be proud of Kerr and congratulate her on this outstanding achievement for women’s sports).
How are these companies acting as allies to Kerr? Note: In modern terms, an ally refers to someone who supports a marginalised group. (These companies act as allies to Sam Kerr by supporting and encouraging her achievement and presenting her in such a positive light).

Step 3

Students should now turn to Tim Cahill’s post, which expresses his support for Sam Kerr’s achievement. In their groups, students should discuss the elements of support and allyship provided to Kerr by Cahill. Project the post onto the board, and ask students to share the examples they chose to prove that Cahill also supported Kerr. Use a whiteboard marker to model annotation, drawing arrows from key pieces of written and visual language that students identify. Students should add anything they have not already identified to their own worksheets.

Answers may include:

Cahill refers to Kerr becoming the leading goalscorer as an ‘amazing achievement’
he describes Kerr as being an ‘inspiration globally’
he says he is ‘one of [Kerr’s] biggest supporters’
in the visual, Kerr is in the foreground, suggesting she is the celebrated and important one
in the visual, Cahill stands behind Kerr, pointing at her, showing how she is an inspiration.

Learning extension: By the time Cahill’s post went live, there was already a barrage of negative reporting and comments saying that Kerr’s achievement was not comparable to Cahill’s. Why do you think Cahill chose not to address this in his post? How does this play into allyship? Do you think his post would have had the same impact if he had chosen to address these comments?

Step 4

Give students time to read and briefly discuss the four replies to Cahill’s post. On the board, write ‘100% support’ on one side and ‘100% challenge’ on the other. Using the classroom as a continuum, and for each posted reply, ask students to stand where they think the post sits regarding how much it supports or challenges Cahill and then Kerr.

Choose a couple of students with each example, and ask them to justify where they were standing on the continuum. Ask selected students how they think Tim Cahill or Sam Kerr might have felt about these responses versus the Twitter posts we have looked at so far in this lesson.

Some posts are positive, some obviously negative and some are purposefully ambiguous to encourage students to think and justify.

Literacy extension: Students can build a word bank of supportive language they encounter in these pieces of media. They could explore further pieces of media and build on this word bank.

Take Action: Employing a supportive voice

Step 1

Let’s write our own post! Ask students to write a post supporting someone they admire who may find themselves silenced or unnecessarily criticised.

Parameters:

280 characters long
think about your language – use some of the words and phrases learned today if you get stuck
optional: find or design an image to complement your message.

Students may bounce from today’s content and choose a sporting star to highlight, which is appropriate; but ensure students understand that the point of this task is to focus on someone who may have found themselves marginalised in some way – through their gender, their race or their ethnicity perhaps.

Reflection

As a final reflection, ask students to respond to the prompt: ‘Why is it important to be an ally online?’. Being an ally has always been important, but there is an added dimension to online communication. Students may like to keep their reflection personal or share them with the class.

Digital Media: Role Models and Troll Models

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

Digital Media: Role Models and Troll Models

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables